Since I’m living la vida Kabbalah these days:

  • You know that thing about not studying Kabbalah until you’re 40 years old? Well, both R. Isaac Luria and R. Nachman of Breslov died in their mid-30s. So that tells you about that.
  • Sheol, one of the names of the underworld, comes from the same root (שאל) as sheilah, question. That is to say, what happens after you die is supposed to be a big question mark–we don’t get to know.
  • The charachter of R. Shimon b. Yochai in the Zohar is most likely based on medieval Kabbalist Todros Abulafia.
  • According to the Zohar, the one sin for which there is no possibility of repentance or redemption is masturbation.*
  • One of the theories about how converts get a “Jewish soul” is that, while most (Jewish) souls are taken from a treasury underneath the Divine throne, the souls of converts and generated by “the sexual liasons of the righteous in the celestial Garden of Eden.” (P. Giller)
  • The Tu B’Shvat seder was created by a follower of messianic heretic Sabbatai Tzvi.
  • *And no, I didn’t hold by halakha poskened from the Zohar even before I heard that, thanks.

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